(((drum roll))) I finished it!

This is a long and convoluted story, with a few twists and turns. Six years ago (yes SIX), I decided to give my daughter a cookbook for a wedding shower present. This wasn't going to be an ordinary cookbook, mind you. Good heavens, no! I wanted this cookbook to be special. My idea was to contact friends & family of the happy couple and compile a book of favorite recipes from everyone who responded. I got stacks of recipes, some on fancy recipe cards and some written in pencil on scraps of paper. I dutifully recorded all of them on my computer. But the project snowballed and got bigger than I could handle. Once I had the recipes entered, what was I going to do with them? How would I arrange them? How would I print the book?

The shower came and went, as did the wedding and first anniversary. The recipes sat on my computer, in an almost forgotten file. Friends would ask if I had finished "that book for Katie" and I'd smile and say, "Not yet, but soon!" I felt enormous guilt that I hadn't finished my project. The years passed and I continued to feel conscience-stricken. All those wonderful people had sent me their prize recipes for Katie. What kind of horrible, slacker mom was I becoming?

And then, three weeks ago, a miracle! My friend Beth at Rhubarb and Venison posted about a cookbook a friend had given her. It was a compilation of all the wonderful recipes on her blog. Turns out there is actually a site, TasteBook, that puts recipes together in a book! In other words, they do the hard part for you. They organize the recipes and print the book! All I had to do was upload the recipes I wanted to use. How amazingly perfect, or perfectly amazing! This was just the boost I needed to complete my project. I spent an intense week selecting something from everyone and collecting the best of the best, since the book only holds 100 recipes (I've decided I may do another volume down the road).

And guess what? The book arrived today! It's here. I held it in my hands. I touched the pages and marveled at all the spectacular recipes gathered inside. There's my mom's world famous pumpkin bread recipe and a steamed cranberry pudding with rum sauce recipe from my mother-in-law that's awesome! The book is here and it's done and I'm giving it to Katie tomorrow. I have a warm feeling inside ... and I can hear a little voice saying, "You did it, old girl. Good job!" I think it's my conscience telling me I'm finally off the hook!